Reptile & Amphibian Forums

So far I have two eggs from my Eastern box turtle. The first one caught me by surprise and was stepped on by her mate (who has since been moved). It has a small hole in its shell, which I covered with a band-aid. Maybe it'll be okay. I waited four hours for the second one and its perfect. Now I'm worried because I'm at work and I'm pretty sure there's more coming. Guess what I'll be doing during lunch

Why are they spaced out like that? I thought they laid them all at once. About how many should I expect? I'm soooo excited!

Where are you keeping your turtles? What is the substrate?
Based on what you've described, your turtles would be better off in a setup that is more suitable for them, since the female has deposited two eggs on the surface over the course of a four hour interval. It sounds to me like your female turtle could use an appropriate nesting site. She needs to be somewhere that has soil at least 6 inches deep, and that is well packed so that the nest cavity does not collapse as the digging progresses.

Eastern box turtles will laboriously dig a nest before depositing eggs and covering them. The digging phase can take several hours, but the actual egg laying process typically takes just a few minutes, and then covering the nest can take a few more hours.

To give you an example, one of our female Easterns will take 4 hours or so to dig a nest, 15 minutes to lay 4 eggs and position them within the nest, and another 3 to 4 hours to cover the eggs and camouflage the nest site. The females that produce larger clutches here may take a little longer to lay all of their eggs, but it seldom takes more than 30 minutes or so.

I agree with all of the advice Steph has given you.

Stressed females, or extremely nervous females will lay scattered eggs as opposed to building a nest and covering them.

Conditions that can cause stressed females are: if the female is in an aquarium and can see out, if the male is enclosed with her in very close quarters, if her temps are too hot, too noisy, or other inappropriate nesting conditions.

Regarding the small hole in one of the eggs. If you can keep the inside membrane intact; the embryo inside will develop normally. Also you will need to keep the opening free of debris and prevent loss of humidity.. A bandaid most likely will fall off with several days of high humidity. You may try a very small piece of 3M Duropore SILK Tape placed ever so gently over the small hole. Silk Tape is more water resistant, not toxic and you can get a piece from any vet or Nurse aquaintance, or buy a very small role at a medical supply. Good luck and keep us posted.

Ric

My thanks to you both for your advice.

I'm in the process of building an outdoor enclosure for my turtles. In the meantime, they are in a tank, as you suspected. They're on about three to five inches of cypress mulch, depending on how they've pushed it around. The eggs were buried in a corner, but the male started nosing around and got one. She hasn't laid any since, and I can't feel any (my vet showed me how). She's not scratching or digging and is acting completly normal.

Their new home will be finished in a couple of weekends, weather permitting, and includes sun, shade, nesting grounds, hiding places, edible plants, and a "pond" (used to be a birdbath). I think they'll be very happy with it.

Again thank you, and I will definitely stay in touch.

Jaime

2.3 ball pythons
1.1 bearded dragons
1.1 box turtles
1.1 leopard geckos
1.0 rainbow boa